estate agent miss selling

chelseagloucesterfan

Need some advice on estate agents miss selling the number of bedrooms we have in our property.
Our agents advertised the property that we were buying as 4 bedroom house. However during the process we found out that the 4th bedroom which is a loft conversion did not have building regulations. Our seller paid for a indemnity insurance on this however we have been told that the estate agents have potentially miss sold regardless as they should not have sold the property as a 4 bedroom house.
Has anybody heard of this happening before or can provide any advice on where we stand?

TonyMMM

The agents will use whatever info they are given by the seller to advertise the property.

Presumably the lack of building regs for the 4th bedroom was highlighted by the survey/your solicitor during the buying process but you chose to go ahead with the purchase.

What advice did your solicitor give you about it, and what do you want to happen now ?

jbainbridge

The more worrying thing is that if you ever sell you will need to market the house as 3 bed ... and so possibly at a reduced price. You should consider what price you want to pay now.

dodger1

chelseagloucesterfan wrote: »

Need some advice on estate agents miss selling the number of bedrooms we have in our property.
Our agents advertised the property that we were buying as 4 bedroom house. However during the process we found out that the 4th bedroom which is a loft conversion did not have building regulations. Our seller paid for a indemnity insurance on this however we have been told that the estate agents have potentially miss sold regardless as they should not have sold the property as a 4 bedroom house.
Has anybody heard of this happening before or can provide any advice on where we stand?

Not sure what advice you are after. You bought the property in the full knowledge that the 4th bedroom didn't have building regs so what's the problem.

kingstreet

chelseagloucesterfan wrote: »

However during the process we found out that the 4th bedroom which is a loft conversion did not have building regulations. Our seller paid for a indemnity insurance on this however we have been told that the estate agents have potentially miss sold regardless as they should not have sold the property as a 4 bedroom house.
Has anybody heard of this happening before or can provide any advice on where we stand?

You should have withdrawn your offer, or offered less at the time, if you were unhappy.

Proceeding with the purchase once you knew this suggests you were satisfied then, but now appear to have developed "buyer remorse" and are looking for someone to blame...

Have you considered "regularisation" another word for retrospective building regs approval?

jbainbridge

Have you completed or are you still in the buying process?

The time to ask this question was during the buying process ...

eddddy

chelseagloucesterfan wrote: »

Need some advice on estate agents miss selling the number of bedrooms we have in our property.
Our agents advertised the property that we were buying as 4 bedroom house. However during the process we found out that the 4th bedroom which is a loft conversion did not have building regulations. Our seller paid for a indemnity insurance on this however we have been told that the estate agents have potentially miss sold regardless as they should not have sold the property as a 4 bedroom house.
Has anybody heard of this happening before or can provide any advice on where we stand?

Hi chelseagloucesterfan

There is no statutory definition of a bedroom in the UK. And the dictionary definitions include:

“a room containing a bed”, “a room furnished with beds or used for sleeping”, “a room used for sleeping”

So if a 'reasonable person' would describe your house as having 4 bedrooms, then the EA can safely describe your house as having 4 bedrooms.

The mortgage co may have their own definition of a bedroom - so they might describe your house as 3 bedroom.

And a Bedrooms based insurance policy might have a different definition again - so it might describe your house as 4 bedroom.

And the Housing Act 1985 introduces further definitions.

And the RICS (who regulate the surveyors who do most house surveys) say this: http://www.rics.org/uk/footer/glossary/what-is-a-bedroom/ (No mention of building regs approval.)

Had you asked the EA if the 4th bedroom had building regs approval, and they knowingly misled you - you might have cause for complaint. But probably not otherwise.

DRP

kingstreet wrote: »

You should have withdrawn your offer, or offered less at the time, if you were unhappy.

Proceeding with the purchase once you knew this suggests you were satisfied then, but now appear to have developed "buyer remorse" and are looking for someone to blame...

Have you considered "regularisation" another word for retrospective building regs approval?

As above^


Similar situation with the house we recently bought. 3-beds, but loft 'bedroom' didn't have building regs.

We offered the vendors 2 choices:

1) Bank need to re-value the house downwards for mortgage purposes and that is what we will pay.

2) Contact the council and get building control to regularise the conversion and we pay what was agreed/valued.

It cost them about 2 to 3k to regularise (cost of the BR chap to inspect plus some very simple alterations) and it saved them about 10 thousand which the bank would have lopped off the price.

If you 've already bought it then there's nothing to stop you getting BR out to tell you what needs doing...

davidmcn

chelseagloucesterfan wrote: »

Our seller paid for indemnity insurance

Which effectively sorts the problem. So what is it you're wanting to complain about?

Annie1960

What stage of the buying process are you at? If you believe you have lost money because the EA mis-described the loft as a bedroom when it does not have the relevant building regs certs, you could complain to the Ombudsman. See especially page 46 of the link below.

http://www.tpos.co.uk/downloads/reports/TPO-AnnualReport-2012.pdf